Compass Box Scotch Tasting (by David Burbank)

Please welcome David Burbank, a writer and Scotch aficionado, to Massbytes! He will be starting a series reviewing various scotches and events, as well as providing us some knowledge on the ins and outs of the Scotch world.

I recently had the pleasure of attending a Scotch tasting at Federal Wine and Spirits in Boston. The menu consisted of Compass Box Whisky Company offerings and was presented by John Glaser, their founder and master whiskymaker.

Mr. Glaser is on a mission. As a general rule, blended Scotch has a bad reputation in the Scotch enthusiast market. There are a number of reasons for this perception, but the primary factor points to blends using components that are subpar or of dubious origin. Compass Box has already made great strides in shifting this belief. The majority of Mr. Glaser’s creations have received critical accolades worldwide.

I tasted a number of blended malt Scotches (and a single blended Scotch), but the gem of the night was the August 2012 limited edition, Flaming Heart.

Bottled at 48.9% ABV and non-chill filtered, the color in the glass is a rich gold. With added water, the Scotch clouds slightly (as is expected due to the non-chill process - I plan to go into the specifics of filtering in a future blog post).

This is a huge Scotch. On first taste, you experience mouth-filling peat with an iodine note, a campfire on the beach with sea salt in the air. As the flavor develops one gets a backbone of vanilla, gentle sherry nuttiness, a touch of cigar box cedar, black pepper, and clove. The consistency in the mouth is slightly viscous, a light velvet on the tongue. With a touch of water, any rough, bitter edges are smoothed out, and notes of candied orange appear mid-palate.

The components of the blend are Islay (primarily South Shore), Highland, Speyside, and Islands and the Scotch was aged in refill American ex-bourbon, French new oak, and sherry cask.

If Flaming Heart is within your budget constraints and you enjoy peat-forward Scotch, I would recommend adding this to your collection.

Caveat: Everyone’s palate is different - and tasting notes are a rough guide with much variation due to individual experience.